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Rogue Stars is another of the Osprey Wargame Series. This one is written by Andrea Sfiligoi who also wrote A Fistful of Kung Fu and Of Gods and Mortals. In addition, he works with Ganesha Games and wrote the popular Song of Blades and Heroes rules and their derivatives. That means he has an established track record of game design. I had certain pre-conceived notions of what I was going to find once I cracked the cover of this book based on what I knew of his design philosophy, but I heard some initial rumors that made me think that the design of Rogue Stars would diverge significantly from Mr. Sfiligoi’s previous works. He has a strong design ethos to his games.



I know many people were looking forward to this game as a generic Sci-fi skirmish set so they could bring the models they owned to the table. Some of the pre-release models from Northstar miniatures were very promising, harkening back to and older, nostalgic time of Oldhammer wargaming. They created a god deal of buzz and fueled further speculation on the rule set ahead.

Unlike some of the other Osprey games, Rogue Stars does not start with and design criteria or notes. However, the initial “The Basic” section gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Those are that the game is played on a 3x3 board between groups of 4 to 6 models each. Each model is supposed to be a “character” with their own personality and story behind them. The models can be any scale with some slight modification, but they are designed with 28mm in mind. The game uses 3 d20 per player and it is helpful to have some tokens for stress, pins, and wounds. Online the author recommends that each character have a sheet on a sideboard and the tokens actually go on the record sheet and not the table.

There is only a brief 2 paragraphs introduction to the setting and it is pretty generic. At the edges of a crumbling galactic government, your models are trying to make a living, meet interesting people, not get killed, and keep in flying. The setting is a lawless and dangerous place.

So, with all this build up and excitement for this game, how does it play?

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2017/02/review-rogue-stars-osprey-wargame-series.html

I've been playing Rogue Stars, and feel I have enough games under my belt to comment on the game review that was linked in .o.p. I hope that was the intention of the original post, a discussion.

This game can be complex at times. There's a lot of moving parts each turn. You need to keep track of stress, pinning, wounds, and which models are prone. There is a lot of page turning and looking up modifiers to hit, wound, movement. and what your skills do. Your going to forget. There's a lot of stuff.

BUT

I gets better the more you play.

I feel the positives of this game GREATLY outweigh the negatives. You can bring any model you own into your squad and play with them. The fact that its not "you go I go" is something unique and refreshing that I never experienced before. There is a lot of page flipping to figure out modifiers, and what skills do, but each of your models can only have a max of six skills, so thats all you have to keep track of. You could play with as little as a 3 member team if you don't like keeping track of a lot of stuff.

My current campaign team has a rogue Inquisitor, an ork, a grot, a genestealer, and a sister of silence, and I've got the unique skills for each to truly represent their 40k counterparts. The ork even has the vegetable skill!

I guess my point is for $12+US it worth a look. Im getting a lot of enjoyment out of the game system.

The mission generation tables make each game fairly unique. Its a fun game to add to your collection.

The one complaint I have heard while playing was a player complained about the resilience of characters. I had a game one character what totally pummeled but wouldnt die. He actually survived because the guy's giant worm picked him up and carried him away- Dune style. How cool is that?

Yeah, the mission generator is great! That might be worth the price of picking up the book alone. Especially if your main exposure to Wargaming is 40k Or other "big box" games.


Edit: I welcome discussion on my reviews as I try to be clear why I do or do not like something. I want to see other opinions on it since my tastes can be .... peculiar.

Check out Manchu's thoughts and bat rep for a different take.

I kind of hope more setting neutral skirmish rulesystems come out. In particular I really like the customizability of the game, but it does have a high bar of entry for someone new to wargaming.

In particular I feel like the +/- modifiers stacks no so much would be a deterrent.

That being said I'm having fun making characters in it and it allows me to play with my terrain a lot more. I especially like the Space ship and Space Port locations. Makes me want to play a Space Hulk game.

 Easy E wrote:
Check out Manchu's thoughts and bat rep for a different take.

For convenience:

http://lifeonjasoom.blogspot.com/2016/12/rogue-stars-overview.html

http://lifeonjasoom.blogspot.com/2017/01/rogue-stars-aar-great-escape.html

When I first saw this game and read rules, I thought of Mojo from Marvel Universe and his area ... Just throw teams against each other gladiator style. I still like that idea and may do it, but right now it's too much fun as a space game.

When you run the campaign, it can be brutal when you lose. The loser's guys just die, unless stabilI zed and carried off board. There is no chart to roll injuries like some other skirmish games like Mordheim. Whats different is, the game let's you just use points from a guy who died to make a new member, but you dont score xp for that mission. This idea is growing on me:

1. It let's you tweak members depending on what you faced.
2. If your team gets hammered your not playing a losing battle for the entire campaign cause your teams weak now. It keeps teams close in strength throughout campaign.

Nice review. I will take a closer look at the scenario generator. I definitely agree with your comments re: Dragon Rampant. An excellent game.

One minor clarification. Andrea IS Ganesha Games. Owner, editor, and author of most of it's products.

 Eilif wrote:
Nice review. I will take a closer look at the scenario generator. I definitely agree with your comments re: Dragon Rampant. An excellent game.

One minor clarification. Andrea IS Ganesha Games. Owner, editor, and author of most of it's products.

That was my suspicion but I did not know for sure. Thanks.